U.S. automakers, emerging from financial and market chaos not seen for decades, now have to shift from crisis mode to their real business: building and selling vehicles buyers want now, while making multibillion-dollar bets on what they'll want later. They must shift from doing business as if their hair were on fire to the sober, long-view approach of more normal times.

General Motors has quit working with a partnership that collects toxic parts from scrapped automobiles, jeopardizing an effort to prevent mercury pollution just as hundreds of thousands of clunkers are headed to recyclers.

President Obama signed into law Friday morning legislation bolstering the popular cash-for-clunkers program by giving it an extra $2 billion in hopes of extending a wave of trade-in deals that buoyed car sales and boosted demand for fuel-efficient vehicles in July.

The Senate reached a deal on saving the dwindling "cash for clunkers" program late Wednesday, agreeing to vote on a plan that would add $2 billion to the popular rebate program and give car shoppers until Labor Day to trade in their gas-guzzlers for a new ride.

Some auto dealers are running short of new cars even as the Senate is poised to join the House in adding $2 billion to the government's cash-for-clunkers program, which could sell another 500,000 vehicles.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is predicting swift approval for an extension of the popular "cash-for-clunkers" program, which is rapidly running out of money because of surging demand from consumers eager to purchase new cars with federal help.

GMAC Financial Services, which provides both automotive and home loans, said Tuesday it posted a wider second-quarter loss of $3.9 billion as it transformed from an arm of General Motors into an independent bank.

The popular but overwhelmed "cash for clunkers" program is zooming toward a quarter-million trade-ins with the initial $1 billion in rebates, but the White House warns the special deals could sputter to an end by Friday unless the Senate quickly approves $2 billion more.